Inside the CFL: QB Vernon Adams gets his chance to prove his worth

REGINA — As luck would have it, Eastern Washington’s 2015 football schedule opened with a game at Oregon against the seventh-ranked Ducks. The Eagles scored 42 points that day — more than enough to win under normal circumstances. But there was nothing normal about this day.

Oregon, now led by veteran quarterback Vernon Adams — a fifth-year graduate transfer from Eastern Washington — beat his old team after the Ducks produced 61 points. And all Beau Baldwin, the Eagles’ head coach, could do on the other sideline was laugh and shrug his shoulders.

“If you’re asking me if the roles were reversed and Vernon was still playing for us, do I think we could have won? That’s tough to answer. Who knows?” the diplomatically-correct Baldwin told the Montreal Gazette this week by telephone from Cheney, Wash.

It was, of course, a rhetorical question. In his three seasons as EWU’s starter, Adams passed for 110 touchdowns and 10,438 yards while completing 64.8 per cent of his attempts. He also added 11 rushing touchdowns. He threw 31 interceptions but led the Eagles to an overall record of 28-6 and three consecutive Big Sky Conference championships. Twice he was the runner-up for the Walter Payton Award, the Football Championship Subdivision’s equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.

Only 5-foot-11 and 200 pounds, Adams became one of the NCAA’s most dangerous playmakers, immediately thrusting the Eagles into national title contenders.

In this Sept. 6, 2014, file photo, Eastern Washington quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. throws a pass against Washington Huskies in the second half of an NCAA college football game in Seattle.Elaine Thompson /
AP

“He just struck me as a guy who could always visualize and see great things happening for him. He always was just in that moment. He always had that great imagination,” said Baldwin, who also coached future Canadian Football League pivots Bo Levi Mitchell, Mike Reilly and Matt Nichols.

“I just felt like he was a guy that would do special things at Eastern Washington because of his demeanour, personality and his bounce … all of that stuff to obviously go along with his physical tools.”

It’s why Alouettes general manager Jim Popp traded a 2017 first-round draft choice to the British Columbia Lions just before training camp to secure the rights to Adams, and why Montreal then promptly signed the 23-year-old native of Pasadena, Calif., to a three-year contract.

It has always been assumed Adams was the Als’ quarterback of the future — the latest to hold that distinction. He joins a long, and at times unheralded, list that includes Josh Neiswander, Tanner Marsh, Troy Smith, Jonathan Crompton, Alex Brink, Dan LeFevour, Rakeem Cato, Anthony Boone, Kevin Glenn and Brandon Bridge as guys that have lined up behind centre since Anthony Calvillo’s last start in 2013.

Saturday afternoon at Mosaic Stadium, the latest incarnation of the Als’ future begins. Interim head coach Jacques Chapdelaine has decided to replace Cato with Adams against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Adams will finally begin earning his reported $100,000 salary for being something more than a short-yardage specialist. It might turn out being one of the most highly-anticipated quarterback debuts in league history.

“I don’t know why it’s such a big deal. I kind of see because they traded a first rounder and everybody wants to see if I was worth it or not,” Adams said Friday afternoon, after the team’s flight from Calgary was delayed approximately one hour due to mechanical failure.

“I’m trying not to get all into that,” he continued. “I’m just trying to do my best, get my playmakers the ball, throw the ball away when I’m scrambling, if I’m about to get sacked. I’m just trying to put our team in a great position to be successful, get first downs, move the ball and keep the defence off the field as long as possible.”

It never should have come to this, of course, professional football teams generally loath to start rookie quarterbacks. And perhaps nothing this drastic ever would have occurred had Crompton remained healthy, or had the Als won more games under veteran Glenn, since jettisoned to Winnipeg for a draft pick. Or even had Cato not repeatedly capitulated to acts of irrationalism. But this is where the Als are in their evolution, and they can only hope Adams delivers a sliver of promise and optimism, justifying the heavy price Popp paid — a price that will look even more damning should Montreal finish last overall and the Lions get the first pick next May.

Alouettes quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. hops over a tackle attempt by a Hamilton Tiger-Cats defender during Canadian Football League game in Montreal, Friday, July 15, 2016.John Mahoney /
Montreal Gazette

The brief glimpses Adams has displayed this season have been somewhat predictable and less than inspiring. He wasn’t great in his brief exhibition play and then, back on July 15 against Hamilton — replacing Cato, who started for the injured Glenn — in the fourth quarter, he completed only four of nine passes for 35 yards. And he was sacked three times. And the Als’ offensive line hasn’t improved much over the last three months.

“During the pre-season, I didn’t do that good. Then I got in against Hamilton in the fourth quarter and didn’t do as good as everybody hoped,” Adams said. “We’ve had some bumps — a lot of bumps lately. But I’m ready. I’m ready to go out there and let it out, let it loose.

“If I’m tense, if I let the crowd get to me … if I let all this get to me — the hype — then I won’t be playing good. I’ll do my best not to let that happen. There’s going to be adversity.”

A lack of composure should be the least disconcerting aspect of Adams’s play. He never has found any challenge or precarious situation daunting. He became one of the first collegiate quarterbacks to transfer up a level for his final season, simply because he wanted to play for a Pac-12 team. And not just any school. He replaced Heisman-winning quarterback Marcus Mariota, being declared the Ducks’ starter only two weeks after arriving on campus.

He started 10 games for Oregon and went 7-3, passing for 2,643 yards, 26 touchdowns and only six interceptions. Adams went undrafted, likely due to his size, although he attended rookie mini-camp with both Seattle and Washington.

But Adams can succeed, in time, if the Als devise ways to move the pocket and launch points — and provided he can find a way to extend plays with his legs. A vertically-challenged quarterback must see between linemen and through the gaps. But it has been done before in Canada, repeatedly.

“I think he’ll be just fine. I don’t have a crystal ball, but it’s not going to shock me when I see him do great things at that level,” Baldwin said. “He just has all the data. Every time he’s been put on whatever stage it is … he’s always had success. He’s always moved a team down to score. He’s always won a lot of games. There’s no doubt he’ll win football games up there and will have success.”

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